June 30, 2005

Stay the Course
By U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson
(As appeared in the Marietta Daily Journal)

I spent an extraordinary eight hours last weekend with the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who are guarding and interrogating the enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and it convinced me more than ever that we must stay the course and keep that facility open. There is no doubt that the intelligence we are gathering from the detainees at Guantanamo is saving American lives and the lives of other innocent citizens around the world.

I went to Guantanamo with the specific desire to see for myself what I've heard so many people talk about and seen so much about on television. And I came away after an eight-hour visit thinking there must be two Guantanamos - the one I visited and the one all the news media talk about, because they don't resemble one another.

I thought when I landed at Guantanamo Bay, I would see men incarcerated in cyclone fences with razor wire on top. But that original camp - called Camp X-Ray - was closed three years ago because the United States spent millions of dollars to build the state-of-the-art buildings that now house the 538 detainees who are intent on hurting and destroying Americans.

The most hardened of those detainees that I saw are being held in air-conditioned facilities better than any I have seen in the United States in sheriff's jails and prisons. The food they eat is better than what our soldiers eat. The medical care is first rate. And they are allowed to practice their religion every day. None of this is being shown on CNN.

Yes, the security is tight at Guantanamo, as it should be. These detainees are the enemies of our nation and were captured in battle in the worldwide war on terror.

After touring the state-of-the-art facilities, I had lunch with two Georgia sailors who are on a six-month rotation as guards at Guantanamo. And I asked them if I could take back any message, what would they like for it to be? They said, "Please tell the American media to stop saying what they are saying about what we're doing in Guantanamo, because what we're doing is right, and what's being alleged is not correct. And tell them what we the guards, the American soldiers, are subjected to."

These two gentlemen are African-American citizens of Georgia serving in the Navy. They serve 12 hours on and 12 hours off, four consecutive days, guarding enemy combatants. And every day, they have to shower more than once during their 12-hour duty to wash off the human waste that is thrown on them by the enemy combatants they guard. They are subjected to racial epithets that we in the United States would never accept. And yet, they continue to stay on their posts and serve this country. They are guarding the people that would take the lives of your loved ones and mine, and they are abused every day.

So what is being alleged by people in Congress and elsewhere about how horribly the U.S. military personnel are treating these detainees is not correct. The people subjected to abuse are the men and women in the Armed Forces of the United States.

I will spread as far and wide as I can the message from these two brave Georgia sailors who stand in the front line in the war on terror, guarding the enemy combatants from whom we are gaining the intelligence that is saving American lives. Enemy combatants who are treated well, fed well, clothed well and medically treated well. Enemy combatants who would take the lives of our loved ones but for the commitment of this president, this country and the men and women of our military.

And I hope in some small way the message I bring back from those valiant soldiers will help us to stay the course in the war on terror and stay the course for democracy and freedom.

Johnny Isakson of east Cobb represents Georgia in the U.S. Senate.